Commentary on Keith Mashinter's "Calculating Sensory Dissonance: Some Discrepancies Arising from the Models of Kameoka & Kuriyagawa, and Hutchinson & Knopoff"

Mashinter’s (2006) mathematical model of sensory dissonance neglects the dependence of roughness on waveform, the role of masking, the distribution of roughness across critical bands, the possible positive contribution of fusion or toneness to euphony, and the familiarity and music-theoretical functions of a sonority. Of course not all these aspects can reasonably be included in a model, but they can affect the data with which its predictions are compared

Commentary on Cook & Fujisawa's "The Psychophysics of Harmony Perception: Harmony is a Three-Tone Phenomenon"

Cook & Fujisawa (2006) point out that, contrary to the predictions of psychoacoustic models, the diminished triad is more consonant and prevalent in western tonal music than the augmented. A possible simple explanation is that the diminished triad often functions as an incomplete dominant (major-minor) seventh chord, the most prevalent tetrad in mainstream tonal music

Consonance and Dissonance of Simultaneous Trichords in Western Music: A Listening Experiment to Test Models of Harmonicity and Roughness

Previous empirical studies have suggested that the perceived consonance/dissonance (C/D) of a musical chord depends on its psychoacoustic smoothness (lack of roughness), spectral harmonicity (perceptual fusion), and/or musical familiarity. We tested the dependence of C/D on smoothness and harmonicity in a hearing experiment that included all 19 possible trichords in musical pitch-class set theory. In each trial, a listener heard a chord (duration: 300 or 500 ms) and rated its C/D on an 11-point scale. Each trichord was presented 10 times: 4 times constructed from octave-complex tones (OCTs, sounding like an electronic organ) and 6 times from natural piano tones. Each OCT chord was presented in 4 different transpositions. The piano chords were in close or open position, and root position or 1st/2nd inversion (2 levels of spacing x 3 levels of inversion = 6 levels of voicing). We found no main effect of timbre (OCT versus piano) and no interaction between trichord and timbre. Results correlated closely with predictions of simple models of roughness and harmonicity. The roughness model performed better, and the predictions correlated with each other. A combined model was not superior to roughness alone. The results were consistent with a multifactorial model of the C/D of a musical chord, the main factors being roughness, harmonicity, and familiarity

Musicologia Sistemática: a história e o futuro do ensino acadêmico musical no ocidente

Resumo: Musicologia sistemática é um termo genérico, usado, principalmente na Europa Central, para algumas subdisciplinas da musicologia que se ocupam mais com a música no sentido geral do que com manifestações musicais específicas. Este artigo visa explicar o conceito em inglês para a comunidade acadêmica musical internacional. A musicologia sistemática científica (ou musicologia científica) é essencialmente empírica e orientada a dados; ela envolve psicologia e sociologia empíricas, acústica, fisiologia, neurociências, ciências cognitivas, computação e tecnologia. A musicologia sistemática de orientação humanística (ou musicologia cultural) envolve disciplinas e paradigmas tais como a estética filosófica, sociologia teórica, semiótica, hermenêutica, crítica musical e estudos culturais e de gênero. A disciplina da musicologia sistemática é menos unificada que as suas disciplinas irmãs, musicologia histórica e etnomusicologia, seu conteúdo e seus métodos são mais diversos e tendem a se relacionar mais intimamente com disciplinas ancestrais, tanto acadêmicas quanto práticas, fora da musicologia. A diversidade da musicologia sistemática é, de certa forma, compensada por suas interações interdisciplinares dentro do sistema das subdisciplinas que a constituem (musicologia sistêmica). As origens europeias da musicologia sistemática podem ser traçadas desde a Grécia antiga. A musicologia histórica e a etnomusicologia são disciplinas muito mais recentes e, a importância relativa das três tem flutuado consideravelmente, no decorrer dos últimos séculos. Atualmente, essas três amplas subdisciplinas da musicologia têm quase a mesma importância em termos do volume de atividade de pesquisa desenvolvida. Palavras-chave: Musicologia sistemática, sistêmica, empírica, científica, cultural, histórica, etnomusicologia, ciências humanas, ciências duras, acústica, psicologia, sociologia, filosofia, computação, fisiologia, cognição, interdisciplinaridad

Functions of sad music in daily life: An explorative study on the influence of exposure, coping strategies and personality

People often deliberately listen to music that they consider sad, particularly during negative life events, when sad music can serve a range of self-regulatory functions (Van den Tol & Edwards, 2013). In general, traits such as coping strategies and self-efficacy determine how people react to difficult situations, yet it is unclear how sad music relates to these factors. However, sad music is also used for other reasons, e.g. to simply produce hedonic or aesthetic pleasure (Garrido & Schubert, 2011). The present study aimed to investigate the everyday functions and uses of sad music for a large number of participants, and the ambivalent emotions that they experience in response (Weth & Kickinger, 2013). In an exploratory online study (n=582), participants were asked when and why they listen to sad music, and how it makes them feel. Individual coping strategies (Brief-COPE) and personality traits (empathy and self-efficacy) were measured. We also considered relationships between frequency of exposure to sad music and the corresponding functions and emotional outcomes, since exposure to music can change attitudes towards it (Szpunar et al., 2004). Results revealed a three-factor-structure regarding motives which were labeled as 1) self-regulatory, 2) cursory, and 3) social motives. A two-factor structure emerged in terms of emotional outcomes and these were labeled as 1) light and 2) complex affect, respectively. The three functions showed specific relationships to individual personality traits and coping strategies, e.g. that people with low self- efficacy and high empathy more frequently use sad music for self-regulation. Furthermore, frequent exposure to sad music seems to enable listeners to more often use sad music for cursory functions and respond with more positive and less negative affect.Keywords: sad music, emotions, coping strategies, personalityReferencesGarrido, S., & Schubert, E. (2011). Negative emotion in music: What is the attraction? A qualitative study. Empirical Musicology Review, v6 n4 (Oct. 2011), 214-230.Szpunar, K. K., Schellenberg, E. G., & Pliner, P. (2004). Liking and Memory for Musical Stimuli as a Function of Exposure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(2), 370–381.Van den Tol, A. J. M., & Edwards, J. (2013). Exploring a rationale for choosing to listen to sad music when feeling sad. Psychology of Music, 41(4), 440–465.Weth, K. & Kickinger, M. (2013). Ambivalent Emotions in Music : We Like Sad Music When It Makes Us Happy. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Music & Emotion (ICME3), Jyväskylä, Finland, 11th - 15th June 2013. Geoff Luck & Olivier Brabant (Eds.). University of Jyväskylä, Department of Music

Effects of music and alpha-wave frequencies on meditation

Meditation and music are usually performed together. In many cases music is the background of meditation. Thus, the question arises whether music has a positive effect on meditation. This master thesis delas with the assumptions that music 1) enables more rapid entry into a meditative state, 2) makes it easier to enter a meditative state and 3) makes the perception of a meditative state more intense. Alpha waves (8-12Hz) are representative for a meditative and relaxed state. As a consequence, we will test whether alpha frequencies (8- 12Hz) played via headphones are triggering a meditative state. The assumption is that frequencies in the range of alpha waves are able to provoke or strengthen the production of alpha waves in the brain and therefore a meditative and relaxed state. In the first exploratory part of this study, results will be obtained in a within- subject design based on rating scales. The second part of this study depends on the first part and will be based on electroencephalography (EEG)-, heart rate variability (HRV)- and respiratory rate (RR)- measurements. The first part of this study will comprise four conditions: 1) no music, 2) stressful music, 3) (relaxing) meditation music and 4) frequencies in the range of 8-12 Hz. In every condition the participants will have to meditate while listening to music (or no music) via headphones. Participants will be divided into two groups: 1) experienced meditating persons and 2) non-experienced meditating persons. After every condition they will have to rate on a rating scale from 1 to 7: 1) how fast they think they experienced a meditative state 2) how easy it was to experience a meditative state, and 3) how intense they perceived a meditative state. Statistical analyses will consist of analysis of variance (ANOVA) of these dependent variables. In case it is possible to induce the production of alpha waves or relaxation, this will be of great benefit for science and medicine, because on the one hand it would be easier to have totally relaxed participants in EEG- studies and on the other hand people would be able to relax whenever and wherever.Keywords: meditation, music, alpha, electroencephalography, heart rate variability  

Consonance and Dissonance of Simultaneous Trichords in Western Music: A Listening Experiment to Test Models of Harmonicity and Roughness

Previous empirical studies have suggested that the perceived consonance/dissonance (C/D) of a musical chord depends on its psychoacoustic smoothness (lack of roughness), spectral harmonicity (perceptual fusion), and/or musical familiarity. We tested the dependence of C/D on smoothness and harmonicity in a hearing experiment that included all 19 possible trichords in musical pitch-class set theory. In each trial, a listener heard a chord (duration: 300 or 500 ms) and rated its C/D on an 11-point scale. Each trichord was presented 10 times: 4 times constructed from octave-complex tones (OCTs, sounding like an electronic organ) and 6 times from natural piano tones. Each OCT chord was presented in 4 different transpositions. The piano chords were in close or open position, and root position or 1st/2nd inversion (2 levels of spacing x 3 levels of inversion = 6 levels of voicing). We found no main effect of timbre (OCT versus piano) and no interaction between trichord and timbre. Results correlated closely with predictions of simple models of roughness and harmonicity. The roughness model performed better, and the predictions correlated with each other. A combined model was not superior to roughness alone. The results were consistent with a multifactorial model of the C/D of a musical chord, the main factors being roughness, harmonicity, and familiarity

Metal chaperones prevent zinc-mediated cognitive decline

© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Zinc transporter-3 (ZnT3) protein is responsible for loading zinc into presynaptic vesicles and consequently controls the availability of zinc at the glutamatergic synapse. ZnT3 has been shown to decline with age and in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is crucially involved in learning and memory. In this study, we utilised whole animal behavioural analyses in the ZnT3 KO mouse line, together with electrophysiological analysis of long-term potentiation in brain slices from ZnT3 KO mice, to show that metal chaperones (clioquinol, 30 mg/kg/day for 6 weeks) can prevent the age-dependent cognitive phenotype that characterises these animals. This likely occurs as a result of a homeostatic restoration of synaptic protein expression, as clioquinol significantly restored levels of various pre- and postsynaptic proteins that are critical for normal cognition, including PSD-95; AMPAR and NMDAR2b. We hypothesised that this clioquinol-mediated restoration of synaptic health resulted from a selective increase in synaptic zinc content within the hippocampus. While we demonstrated a small regional increase in hippocampal zinc content using synchrotron x-ray fluorescence microscopy, further sub-region analyses are required to determine whether this effect is seen in other regions of the hippocampal formation that are more closely linked to the synaptic plasticity effects observed in this study. These data support our recent report on the use of a different metal chaperone (PBT2) to prevent normal age-related cognitive decline and demonstrate that metal chaperones are efficacious in preventing the zinc-mediated cognitive decline that characterises ageing and disease